Announcing or advertising apparatus.



No. 874,832. PATENTED DEC. 24, 1907. E. OHARLES.

ANNOUNGING 0R ADVERTISING APPARATUS.

APPLIOATION FILED JAN. 27. 1904.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

mum .wmwmm hillllllllY" "mum i Tlnm No. 874,832. PATENTED DEC. 24;,1907. E. GHARLES. ANNOUNGING OR ADVERTISING'APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 27-.1904.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

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mans/v 70/ EMILE CHARLES, OF PARIS, FRANCE.

ANNOUNCING OR ADVERTISING APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 24, 1907.

Application filed January 27. 19M- Serial No. 190.886.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EMILE CHARLES, of 164 Avenue Parmentier, in the cityof Paris, Republic of France, gentleman, have invented an Announcing orAdvertising Apparatus, of which the following is a full, clear, andexact description.

The invention has for its object an-announcement or advertisingapparatus for publicity by day and by night, combined in such manner asto cause to appear, in succession, an inscription or subject withdifferent colorings, or to cause to appear, successively, severaldifferent inscriptions or subjects.

This a paratus is composed in principle of a row 0 \spindles, capable ofturning upon their axes, and each carryinga certain number of prismaticbodies the combination of which is arranged so as to form a giveninscription, or else, so as to form a foundation on which is painted orotherwise applied a given inscription. Each of the faces of theseprismatic bodies is coated with adifferent color from that of the otherfaces, or has thereon a part of a letter or the same letter differentlycolored. It follows that if simultaneous rotary motion is given to allof these spindles, so that one of the faces of a body is substituted foranother, the inscription will appear different or differently coloredfrom what it was previous to this partial rotation of the spindles.

In order that the invention may be clearly understood, I haverepresented an example of the same in the accompanying drawings,

in which:

Figures 1 and 1 are front'elevations of the two ends of one form of myinvention; Figs. 2 and 2 are plans of the two ends of the same, part ofFig. 2 being in section on the line ABof Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a transversesection drawn on the line CD of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a transverse sectiondrawn on the line EF of Fig. 1*. Fig. 5 represents a modification of thearrangement re resented in Fig. 1. Figs. 6 and 7 are detai views of theprismatic bodies.

In all the figures, like parts are indicated by similar letters ofreference.

The apparatus represented at Fig. 1 comrises, as essential elements, acertain numer of spindles 0. arranged perpendicularly between outercross bars I) b and intermediate cross bar 6 These spindles are providedat their upper ends with trunnions c entering bearing holes in the barI), and, below, are furnished with a fork c which connects, by a pin,with the shaft of a toothed wheel d rotating between the two lower barsb 6 Each of these wheels (1 is separated from its neighbor by otherwheels at, in order that all the wheels (2 may rotate in thesame,direction.

On the spindles a are mounted risma-tic bodies 6. 1n the accompanyingawings, the bodies are formed of a triangular prism, the three paralleledges of which are vertical, and the three faces of which are'painted orotherwise made of three different colors. On each of these spindles aremounted any given number of bodies so as to form in their combination aninscription, such, for instance, as that represented at Fig. 1. It isclear that if each of the spindles, by means of the gearing, is causedto rotate a third of a revolution, for the face first turned towards thepublic another, differently colored, will be substituted. The new faceswill evidently form the same inscription or device as before. The motorwhich communicates this third of a rotation, every minute for example,may be of any suitable character. That represented in the accompanyingdrawings, as an example, is composed of a clock movement 9, Fig. 3,which tends constantly to give rotation to a train of gearing, and of anescapement lvcontrolled by another movement not shown in the drawing andwhich renders the spindles immovable during the desired time. For thispurpose, as shown atFig. 4, i is a cam which rotates by the action ofthe movement h, and the profile of which is such as to cause a lever y',carrying a stop'piece k, to oscillate. On the shaft of one of the wheelsis mounted a drum Z furnished with three pins m, which, by coming insuccession against the stop piece 7c, produce from this face thestoppage of the train of gearing d d. When the lever j, by the action ofthe cam, allows a pin m to pass, the train d d driven by the movement 9rotates rapidly, but the rotation is limited to a third of a completerevolution by the following pin m coming into contact with the stopplece 7c. The motor will be of strength to overcome the resistance ofthe train of gearing and may be electric, hydraulic, steam, wind, etc.

For day announcements or advertise ments the may be constituted of glassformed wit facets orfurnished with mirrors, so as to scintillate in thesunlight. The rotation'of the spindles may be intermittent orcontinuous, slow or rapid at will.

In Fig. 5 the prismatic bodies are arranged with the least possible sace between them along the entire length 0 the spindles. On thefoundation thus formed is painted or otherwise executed an'inscription'or a subject of any desiredpharaoter. The spindles then rotating to suchan angle that other faces are substituted for those reviously turnedtowards the public, the oundation will present another inscription oranother subject, or even the same inscriptions or the same sub'ects on asimilar or different foundation. f the rismatic bodies have four faces,for exam e, the combination will thus furnish four di erent subjects orinscriptions,

or else the same inscriptions or subjects in four different colors.

In the arrangement represented as an example in the accompanyingdrawings, the intermediate wheels d have no other object than to producethe rotation of the prisms in the-same direction.

Finally this arrangement of announce mentor advertisin apparatus maycomprise additions whicI: would not change the principle of theinvention as defined by the appended claims, and it may be modified inapparatus and parts which are re resente in the drawings only asan-examp e.

said display devices having, a plurality of faces presenting the sameform whereby the letter remains constant when fferent faces arepresented, the said faces being difierently colored, and means forrotating said spindles,

2. In a display apparatus, the combination of a plurality of displaydevices are ranged to produce a desi n the form of which remainsconstant, each display device having a nu ber of faces. of the sameconstant form, ut of difierent appearances, each face being adapted tobe brought into position to form part of the design, and means formoving said display devices simultaneously to present a different 'setof faces to the front.

3. An advertising device comprising a series of blocks arran ed toproduce an inscription or design, t e several faces of each blockpresenting a different color, but the inscri t1on or deslgn or the partthereof on the several faces remaining constant in form, and means forsimultaneously moving the blocks. I

The foregoing specification of my arrangement of announcing oradvertising ap- .paratus signed by me this31st day of December, 1903.

EMILE CHARLES.

Witnesses:

E. M. CHARLES, Jr., MAURICE H. PIQUET.

